Our stay at the Radisson Blu was so disappointing that we both made notes but have waited to post the review so that some of the frustration could subside. We’ve stayed at the Radisson multiple times as it’s been our hotel of choice for business and pleasure for many (15+) years. This stay was specifically for business.
Upon check-in we were told that our room had no window, even for almost 900 CNY that we paid on Trip. And that payment was only a guarantee. Fine. So, we agreed to pay an additional 100 CNY to have a window.
Then, we were also told that we needed to pay (WeChat) 1500 CNY and that would include the cost of the room rate and the deposit. No sincere explanation or apology by the person at the check-in counter, just a lot of uncomfortable laughing and “pay now, pay now.” We felt like we were being cheated even though this was normal policy.
To be fair, the room given had an amazing view. We were very satisfied and had begun to think the worst was behind us.
We ordered room service that included wonton (dumplings) soup, a classic Caesar salad, and a margherita pizza. The wonton soup was great, but the margherita pizza was barely passable, and the classic Caesar salad was an abomination. Hands down, it was the worst Caesar salad we had ever had. Tiny bacon bits, smelly yellow oil, and old lettuce. We ate two bites and quickly placed it outside in the hallway where it sat until 10:00am the next day. Note: you can only order premium (expensive) bottled water and we were told that they couldn’t give us any more “regular” bottled water even if we said we’d pay for it.
At night, the staff at the fitness center acted as if we were disturbing them when we asked basic questions. A total lack of hospitality that should be on display at a 5-star hotel. We really began to dislike our experience at this point because it became quite evident that nobody really cared. To again be fair, however, the male staff who was on duty in the next morning, was sincere and polite. A welcoming contrast from the evening before.
But then at brunch, the three young men who were running the egg and omelet station were horribly loud and rude. Like everything was a big joke to them – and it got to the point where we just walked away even after we had tried to order.
After brunch, probably the biggest disappoin**ent was that we found out that the Business Center was closed. We had scheduled an important meeting at the hotel and needed to print and prepare some items. We were told that we could only print if we emailed the documents to a hotel email. This was not going to happen so we created a little fuss and a polite manager suddenly appeared and handled everything. That was nice. But the damage was done.
After this situation, we made the decision that this would be our last time staying at the Radisson.
Lastly, after more than 24 hours, the guarantee was only refunded after we called and spoke to a customer service representative at Trip who was very helpful.